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SANTA BARBARA SMOG CONTROL DEADLINE MISSED

Release Date: 8/25/1997
Contact Information: Randy Wittorp, U.S. EPA, (415)744-1589, APCD, Bobbie Bratz, (805)961-8920, Tom Murphy, (805)961-8857

     San Francisco -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today that Santa Barbara County has missed its 1996 deadline to meet the health standard for ozone, a respiratory irritant in smog which can impair breathing.  U.S. EPA intends to reclassify the region from a moderate to a serious nonattainment area and require more pollution control strategies to protect public health.

     "While Santa Barbara hasn’t met the health standard for ozone, we’re in  the home stretch," according to Felicia Marcus, U.S. EPA regional administrator.  "We need to work together to find effective strategies that achieve clean, healthful air and the public health protection people deserve.  Clean air is within reach in the Santa Barbara community."

     The deadline for meeting the ozone standard in Santa Barbara County was November 15, 1996.  While the county missed the deadline, reclassification from moderate to serious does not mean that air quality is getting worse.  Air quality in Santa Barbara County has improved, but the area continues to fall just short of meeting the public health standard for ozone.  If attainment deadlines are missed, the Clean Air Act requires EPA to reclassify moderate areas to serious to ensure continued progress in protecting public health.  

     The Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District and California Air Resources Board have taken steps to improve air quality in the area.   Cleaner burning fuels have been introduced, and the state has the strictest vehicle emission standards in the country.   The District has developed numerous partnerships with industry to introduce new lower polluting technologies. Last year, the District's Innovative Technologies Program received the 1996 Presidential Award for Sustainable Development and the 1996 Governor's Environmental and Economic Leadership Award.

     Exposure to ozone can reduce lung function and increase susceptibility to respiratory infection.  It can also aggravate pre-existing respiratory diseases.  Children are very sensitive to ozone exposure because their lungs are still developing and they spend more time outside, playing and exercising during the summer afternoons when ozone levels are the highest.  Symptoms of ozone exposure include chest pain, coughing, nausea, and pulmonary congestion.

     While  EPA issued a new, more protective ozone standard earlier this summer, the Agency will determine which regions meet the new standard in 2000, based on the most recent air monitoring data available at that time.  New plans will be needed in 2003.  However, it is essential that areas such as Santa Barbara stay on the path to clean, healthful air by keeping the current ozone standard in place.  Thus air districts must continue to implement programs to improve air quality. The serious classification gives Santa Barbara until the end of 1999 to meet the current standard.

     Other moderate areas that did not attain the ozone standard by the 1996 deadline and will be reclassified to serious include:   Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas and Phoenix, Arizona.